Paint the faces of the Mediterranean | STOP MARE MORTUM Call for Entries

STOP MARE MORTUM invites every artist, designer, illustrator, painter, to paint the faces of the Mediterranean. Just download the base image and do it! Faces of despair and hope, the faces of travelers, refugees, immigrants, faces from the past and present , people who only appear as numbers in lists full of faceless victims, faces of the missing and drowned at the borders of the European fortress… People who search for a better life, sharing a desire as old as humanity itself… Faces of people stigmatized as “illegal”, “unwelcome” or ” undocumented.” We can also paint the faces of the Mediterranean that unites us , the sea that makes us free, wise and respectful … Past and future faces of the Mediterranean we dream of.

Follow and view more artworks and news at ROSTRES de la MEDITERRÀNIA
Use hashtag #mediterraneanFACES

Download the image here.
It’s the same base for everybody.
Paint it, draw over it, use any technique you want on a sheet of A4 paper (horizontal).
Then scan it with high resolution (300dpi) and send a pdf or jpg file at [email protected]
Information you need to send along with the artwork:
A title for your artwork.
Write some words about it (if you want)
Your Full Name, Country, website and email.

The objective is to gather one artwork for each victim of the Mediterranean borders (23,000 !!! from the year 2000 to present). All projects will be used to public actions (exhibitions, publications, printing, video, etc.) to raise public awareness and change of European foreign and immigration policy.

The initiative belongs to the organization Stop Mare Mortum https://stopmaremortum.wordpress.com and started three months ago to raise local public awareness of the huge issue that creates the lack of humanity in the mediterranean borders of Europe with Asia and Africa. We wish to coordinate with similar initiatives at international level.

The concept is to be able to show the “face” of the 23,000 people who died in the Mediterranean from 2000 to today, victims of European foreign and immigration policy of “fortress Europe;” In this sense the deadline is the concentration of this elusive number of artworks: one for each man.

 

Here are some first entries:

Despedida
by Yorgos Konstantinou
despedidaP

Mama África
by Juan Linares
mamaAFRICAp

by Tomek Giovanis
Illustrator – Comic Artist
Athens – Greece
mediterranean_face_tomek

Qui mou els fils?
by Dolors Ferrer
MOUfilsP

Marferida (SEAinjured)
by Dolors Ferrer
ROSTRE_D04_petit

selfindiferència (Αηδιαφορία)
by Yorgos Konstantinou
ROSTREindiferenciaYORGOSp

 

We invite any interested party to organize exhibitions with prints of pictures in public places. The first exhibition was already held, a week ago, in a cultural center of Barcelona.

Another option is to use these portraits as accompanying material in campaigns raising public awareness, as illustrations in a text editing, as a basis for a future short film (which is why we choose the horizontal format).

All artwork will be free for download (https://stopmaremortum.wordpress.com/galeria/), but also, depending on the agreement with the designers. We also looking to the ability those artworks to be sold through a campaign of crowdfunding (authentic or fine art prints) that will finance this initiative and related activities.

 

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Maria Papaefstathiou

VISUAL DESIGNER since 1996 and blogger since 2010. Living in Athens, Greece. She has been focusing her research on poster design and particularly on social poster design and portrait design. Her main poster project is a series of posters celebrating great personalities of traditional and popular culture in Greece and Jamaica. These include actors, singers, musicians, poets etc. This is an ongoing project. “I believe that design is a powerful tool that we designers can use to spark enthusiasm, change mindsets and bring positive actions to our world and our culture”. FOUNDER AND EDITOR OF GRAPHICART-NEWS.COM BLOG. She carefully curates high-quality designs, illustrations, and art, from all over the world that will teach and provoke other designers. Many consider her blog to be an exceptional educational tool. CO-FOUNDER OF THE INTERNATIONAL REGGAE POSTER CONTEST which was launched on December 2011, partnering, the creative activist Michael Thompson aka Freestylee. (www.reggaepostercontest.com)